Games Thirst – Amazing Life
Reviewers haven’t been too friendly with THQ’s latest shooter Homefront, and after the embargo was lifted today, a barrage of scores started pouring in. And while some were favorable, most of them rated the game as poor in quality, and if nothing, it’s worth a rent.
Well with the circulation of this news, investors started selling THQ stock, sending the company’s value down 26 percent to $4.40 per share as of the close of the Nasdaq this evening..
It was reported earlier that THQ had dropped 12 percent to $5.23 (71 cents per share) following the release of Homefront reviews, but as the came to an end, things deteriorated.
The drop happened after Metacritic had revealed Homefront only managed 76 (Xbox 360 and 78 (PS3). One could argue that putting the game’s review embargo on the same day it released was a good move for the firm, but a bad one for gamers, as many would’ve already pre-ordered.
A great portion of the reviews were damning, but the most demeaning must have been Eurogamer’s conclusion:
“Taken as a whole, the online action is just enough to balance out the mediocrity of the single-player campaign. But, ironically, Homefront’s place in the FPS genre is an inversion of its own narrative fantasy. In the game’s fiction, Korea is the underdog that takes on the American giant and wins; in reality, Homefront similarly hurls everything it has at the FPS behemoths in its path, but can barely scuff their armour,” said the reviewer.
Adding: “Homefront floats in the limbo between “not bad” and “pretty good”, and is hamstrung by a single-player element that feels like a half-hearted obligation. What’s most disappointing is that Homefront wanted so much to join COD and Battlefield at the top of the genre, but has ended up as merely a weekend timewaster for players waiting for the next shooter fix.”
THQ CEO Brian Farrell has responded, stating he’s not concerned with the reviews, as [Homefront] “seems to resonate with consumers.”
“It’s a mass market title,” he added. “Let’s see what players think.”
